Joseph K. Mansfield

Joseph King Fenno Mansfield (22 December 1803-18 September 1862) was a Major-General in the US Army during the American Civil War. He was killed by Confederate skirmishers at the Battle of Antietam.

Biography
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1803, and he graduated from West Point in 1822. He served as a US Army major during the Mexican-American War, during which he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Monterrey and promoted to colonel after the Battle of Buena Vista. On 28 May 1853, he became Inspector General of the US Army, and he commanded the Department of Washington at the start of the American Civil War. His hopes for command of the Army of the Potomac were repeatedly dashed due to his age, his disdain for volunteer troops, and his lack of political sponsors, and he commanded the Suffolk Division of the VII Corps in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia during the war. On 15 September 1862, he was given command of the XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac, commanding it at the Battle of Antietam two days later. During the battle, he was confused by the arrival of soldiers from the woods, and he told his men not to fire, believing that they were Joseph Hooker's men. However, the Union soldiers came under fire, and Mansfield admitted his mistake. He was then shot in the right chest by the Confederate skirmishers, and he died the next morning from his wounds. His nephew Howard Mather Burnham was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga.